The Queensland LNP’s wicked gag on discussing human rights for unborn babies and support for their mothers continues despite Robbie Katter’s attempt to restore free speech.
For those new to this issue, the LNP in late 2024 passed a motion in Parliament prohibiting discussion of abortion during its four-year term of government.
This was despite harrowing testimony from midwife Louise Adsett backed up by Queensland Health figures showing 50 babies per year are born alive and left to die after failed abortions.
Late-term abortion has boomed since 2018 when Queensland followed Victoria and Tasmania in legalising abortion-to-birth.
That’s right, a perfectly healthy baby with a healthy mother can be killed right up to the point of delivery.
Since 2018, Liberal governments in New South Wales and South Australia followed suit.
WA, under Labor, legalised it in 2024.
Tragically, Queensland LNP Christians, who I’ve heard speak passionately at pro-life rallies and fundraisers, doubled down on the gag.
They didn’t even allow Katter’s motion to unblock the gag to be debated.
The instigation for attempting to overturn the gag was revelations from a Townsville hospital whistleblower that 16-week-old baby Samuel had survived his abortion only to be left to die, sucking his thumb.
A photo was released on social media, only to be censored by big tech.
Mackay MP Nigel Dalton (pictured below) was the only LNP member to support free speech on behalf of our most vulnerable humans, crossing the floor of Parliament in defiance of his cowardly colleagues in support of Katter’s attempt to break the gag.
In a video interview with pro-life activist and lawyer Dr Joanna Howe, Dalton apologised for acquiescing to Premier David Crisafulli’s captain’s call to support Labor’s abortion-to-birth-laws during the 2024 election campaign.
He apologised for naively voting for the gag in December 2024 during his first week of Parliament as a new MP.
Such courage and humility is almost unheard of in Australian politics.
Family First has long called out Crisafulli and the LNP for its embrace of abortion-to-birth.
Sadly, Queensland does not have an upper house which makes it difficult for pro-life minor parties to win seats.
Family First is working to put Deepa Mathew into the South Australian Parliament next month and myself into the NSW Parliament in March 2027.
Despite being let down by the LNP’s large contingent of Christian MPs, Dalton being the heroic exception, a prominent Christian leader joined the pro-life cause.
Pastor Joel Chelliah, president of the Australian Christian Churches, spoke on Monday night at the pro-life rally.
He apologised for being a later-comer to the fight for our most vulnerable.
The disappointment of the LNP clinging to its callous gag is outstripped by Dalton and Chelliah’s humility and resolve to engage the fight.
It was also great to see what is probably un unprecedented display of unity from pro-life groups who came together at very short notice to mobilise thousands of people in front of the Queensland Parliament last Monday night.
The LNP might be gagging Parliament, but they have only emboldened the pro-life community, whose message will win over public support once the truth of our grisly abortion industry is properly exposed.